America First, Last and Always!

Sometime today, the House of Representatives will vote on their version of the tax bill. The Senate is preparing their version as well. Neither are what President Donald Trump proposed. Sure, both bills have some elements of what the President wanted, the House more so than the Senate. But both fall short and in the end, it may not matter. The crazy, cranky old man of the Senate, John McCain, will probably vote no on any tax bill. Plus, a few other Republican senators who are determined to prevent President Trump from fulfilling his agenda. Their objections have less to do about policy and more so to do with just plain, old jealousy.

Such is the state of politics in America. The entire Democratic Party has gone insane and is loaded with corruption. The GOP is not far behind. Greg Gutfeld of Fox News often jokes about having computers run the government and the nation. They probably will eventually one day. But, for now, politics is still a rather human affair and full of emotions and quirks.

The other day, we learned during a House oversight committee that between 1997 and 2014, some $15 Million dollars were paid out to Congressional staffers who were victims of harassment. Some were cases of racial prejudice, but most apparently were of a sexual nature. For example, we learned that an aide delivered documents to a member of Congress some time ago. The Congressman met the woman staffer at the door wrapped in a towel. He then exposed himself to her. During the hearing, we learned that two current members of the House, one Democrat, one Republican, have harassment complaints filed against them.

None of the names of these Congress members has ever been released to the public. Nor the fact that our tax dollars have been paid to victims since 1997. In a year loaded with information being leaked about the Trump administration nearly everyday, one has to wonder why The Media has never gotten any leaks about these cases of sexual harassment by members of Congress? Maybe they did but never reported them? Who can say?

The bottom line is that our political system is being poorly operated by our elected officials. Especially in the U.S. Senate. For its part, at least the House has been doing its job, more or less. There are currently some 180 bills pending in the Senate which the House has already passed. The big culprit for the lack of effort in the Senate is the 17th Amendment. That ′progressive′ gift handed down to us thanks to Woodrow Wilson. Prior to the 17th Amendment, state legislatures would vote on who would represent their states in the Senate. The 17th Amendment has made the Senate a ′Super-House′, with senators being elected by popular votes, requiring campaigning.

This makes the senators on a continuous hunt for campaign contributions, as well as subject to the wiles of lobbyists and other influence peddlers. We have seen a steady decline in the Senate as an institution over the decades. In the last 9 years or so, it has become a joke, and a bad one at that! As watered-down as the House tax bill is, at least it does reduce individual tax rates from 7 to 4, and will give some relief to about 97 million families. The Senate tax bill doesn′t even do that! About the only thing in common is how corporate tax rates are reworked.

So while the House votes today on its tax bill, I am not going to get too excited about it. They have omitted many items which President Donald Trump wanted to reform our tax system. The Senate version does even less. In the end, stumble-bums like John McCain may make the whole exercise pointless as he puts his personal hatred of President Trump ahead of doing what is best for the America People.

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